In recent years increasing attention has been devoted to the association between public opinion and alcohol policy. This report presents trend data concerning public opinion on alcohol policy in Norway since the early 1960s. The data is comprised of nine surveys of representative samples of the Norwegian adult population in the period 1962-2004 (in 1962, 1966, 1973, 1979, 1985, 1991, 1994, 1999 and 2004), and primarily analysed by means of logistic regression.

Since the early 1960s the support for more restrictive alcohol regulations has decreased while the support for more liberal rules has increased. In all of the surveys the majority nevertheless have been in favour of the current rules, both in their home municipality and in the country as a whole.The proportion in favour of the alcohol policy more generally has also increased, even though an overwhelming majority thinks the Norwegian alcohol prices are too high and a, somewhat smaller, majority has been in favour of wine in the supermarkets since the mid 1990s (as opposed to the current state monopoly on retail sale of wines and spirits). An increasingly liberal alcohol policy since the early 1960s, which in particular has lead to a general increase in the availability of legal alcohol, therefore seem to have been well in line with public opinion.

There need not be any contradiction between the increasing support for further liberalisation and a more liberal alcohol policy. One possibility is that the public opinion has a strong influence on the alcohol policy, and that political changes has not kept upwith more rapid, liberal changes in the public opinion. Another possibility however, is that a more liberal alcohol policy by itself have produced an increasing demand for further liberalisation. Since a more liberal alcohol policy generally both produces more drinkers and more heavy drinkers, this also means that more people will have a personal interest in removing the restrictions on their own consumption. It is however not easy to determine if it primarily is the alcohol policy who has affected the public opinion, if it primarily is the other way around or if other factors has affected both.The regression analysis results, however, shows that attitudes to alcohol policy are closely related to how often people drink. The increased alcohol consumption level, which is not unreasonable to see in association with the increased availability of legal alcohol, is therefore also connected to a liberal trend in the public opinion since the early 1960s.